[1] "If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another
man's wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted?
You have played the harlot with many lovers; and would you return to me?
says the LORD. [2] Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see! Where
have you not been lain with? By the waysides you have sat awaiting lovers
like an Arab in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your vile
harlotry. [3] Therefore the showers have been withheld, and the spring rain
has not come; yet you have a harlot's brow, you refuse to be ashamed. [4]
Have you not just now called to me, `My father, thou art the friend of my
youth-- [5] will he be angry for ever, will he be indignant to the end?'
Behold, you have spoken, but you have done all the evil that you could."
[6] The LORD said to me in the days of King Josi'ah: "Have you seen what
she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and
under every green tree, and there played the harlot? [7] And I thought,
`After she has done all this she will return to me'; but she did not
return, and her false sister Judah saw it. [8] She saw that for all the
adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree
of divorce; yet her false sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and
played the harlot. [9] Because harlotry was so light to her, she polluted
the land, committing adultery with stone and tree. [10] Yet for all this
her false sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in
pretense, says the LORD." [11] And the LORD said to me, "Faithless Israel
has shown herself less guilty than false Judah. [12] Go, and proclaim these
words toward the north, and say, `Return, faithless Israel, says the LORD.
I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, says the LORD; I will
not be angry for ever. [13] Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled
against the LORD your God and scattered your favors among strangers under
every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice, says the LORD.
[14] Return, O faithless children, says the LORD; for I am your master; I
will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you
to Zion. [15] "`And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will
feed you with knowledge and understanding. [16] And when you have
multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, says the LORD, they
shall no more say, "The ark of the covenant of the LORD." It shall not come
to mind, or be remembered, or missed; it shall not be made again. [17] At
that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the LORD, and all nations
shall gather to it, to the presence of the LORD in Jerusalem, and they
shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart. [18] In those days
the house of Judah shall join the house of Israel, and together they shall
come from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers for a
heritage. [19] "`I thought how I would set you among my sons, and give you
a pleasant land, a heritage most beauteous of all nations. And I thought
you would call me, My Father, and would not turn from following me. [20]
Surely, as a faithless wife leaves her husband, so have you been faithless
to me, O house of Israel, says the LORD.'" [21] A voice on the bare heights
is heard, the weeping and pleading of Israel's sons, because they have
perverted their way, they have forgotten the LORD their God. [22] "Return,
O faithless sons, I will heal your faithlessness." "Behold, we come to
thee; for thou art the LORD our God. [23] Truly the hills are a delusion,
the orgies on the mountains. Truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of
Israel. [24] "But from our youth the shameful thing has devoured all for
which our fathers labored, their flocks and their herds, their sons and
their daughters. [25] Let us lie down in our shame, and let our dishonor
cover us; for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers,
from our youth even to this day; and we have not obeyed the voice of the
LORD our God."